Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (5 page)

“
Are you sure?” she asked, struggling to speak. Tantrus sighed hollowly.

“
Positive,” he answered in a lower, but grave, tone.

“
You have no idea how terrible this is,” Mr Tarchall said, looking down at the table with no emotion whatsoever in his eyes.

“
Oh, we do. At least
I
do,” Tammy said, clenching her jaws.

“
The void expanding is the foundation of the story – I don’t think
you
really know how terrible this is,” the young girl let out, breathing heavily. Tantrus, Angelina and Mr Tarchall looked at each other in bafflement. They knew questioning Tammy wouldn’t help.

“
What do you mean?” Tantrus asked, his eyes piercing through hers as he stared at her perplexedly. Tammy looked at Robbie. He pressed her hand firmly and nodded. Tammy looked back at the others and bit her lower lip before speaking.

“
Lurkers,” she started.

“
What are Lurkers?” Angelina asked, a questioning look now printed on her face. Tammy inhaled and exhaled deeply.

“
They’re children of the shadows. As the void becomes weaker, expands and becomes thinner, it can allow more and more to pass through. Lurkers are the weakest. They can practically walk through the void’s cover. The worst they can do is give you nightmares,” Tammy finished.

“
Well, that doesn’t sound so bad,” Tantrus started.

“
But, in case you didn’t hear her, as time goes on the void becomes weaker. Monsters will cross over; demons. And finally the Barons themselves,” Robbie finished.

The bafflement in Tantrus
’ eyes seemed to submerge him into a cloud of mixed emotions.

“
And as if thing weren’t bad enough,” Angelina muttered.

“
What do you mean?” Robbie asked. Angelina’s fingers pressed to her glass of water, tighter than they already were and sending minuscule cracks over it.

“
Oh, it’s…its nothing,” she said hesitantly. Tammy looked at Angelina with uncertainty, gently squinting her eyes at her as if trying to see a miniature spot on her forehead that she couldn’t quite exactly make out. They began to glow a bright fluorescent pink and remained that way. Her pupils were defined, being surrounded by a stunning ring of fuchsia.

“
You’re lying,” Tammy said calmly. “Lina’, what’s the actual problem?” she then asked, just as calm. Angelina looked at her in a manner of misapprehension.

“
See? I respect you enough to not go into your private thoughts,” Tammy continued as Angelina exhaled helplessly.

“
The power locks I got for my children are slowly wearing off.” Tantrus gulped, but an almost invisible smile grew on Mr Tarchall’s face.

“
I’m worried because I need to find a way to keep them locked –”

“
No!” Tammy interjected, standing up boldly without hesitation. All heads turned to her in surprise.

“
What she means is if they don’t know what they can do, how will they be able to defend themselves if anything should occur? They’re vulnerable,” Robbie answered as he slowly pulled Tammy back down to her seat again with a sheepish and embarrassed look on his flawless face.

“
No, they’ll be
more
vulnerable if they
do
know about all of this,” Angelina replied, starting to choke by the swelling that grew heavier in her throat each second; she was going to burst into tears.

“
But, Lina –”

“
Wait, she
does
have a point,” interrupted Tammy through Robbie’s statement.

“
Tams, you’re not making sense,” Robbie said. “No, let her speak,” Mr Tarchall ordered, raising a single hand to cease noise. Robbie threw his hands up into the air and rolled his eyes exasperatedly from never being able to interrupt his sister.

“For goodness
’ sake, it’s like she’s the Holy Grail,” he muttered.

“
I forgot to mention: at the time, Jerricho was one of the most powerful hybrids the Nobles needed to face – after Mark, of course. If they find out that he has
three
hybrid children, they’d all be in danger. They’ll try to kill them to get them out of the way,” Tammy concluded.

“
But only
if
they find out. How could they find out about Jade, Jaden and Aden? My daughter Jojo knows everything and she’s not in danger,” Tantrus pointed out to Tammy.

“Yes
, but Jojo isn’t a potential –”

“Lina,” Mr Tarchall quietly interfered. Tammy suddenly felt a tad uneasy and adjusted herself in her seat.

“I think what she means to say, Tantrus, is that you’re not a hybrid and Lurkers are children of the shadows; they basically
are
shadows. Even though Earth is protected by the cover cloud, which
no
Baron can penetrate, a
Lurker
can
. They could be anywhere,” Tammy stressed.

“
Tammy, you’ve just totally scrambled your point. You’ve switched sides that you were defending,” Robbie stated.

“
Did I?” she asked, growing a rhetorical smile as she looked at Angelina.

“
Lina knows what I meant,” she said raising an eyebrow. But it was true – Angelina
did
know what the girl meant.

“
Either I never divulge their abilities and heritage to them and see them get killed without having a chance to fight back, or reveal everything to them and allow them to become some of the most powerful hybrids alive, but at the cost of nearly always being prone to danger,” Angelina uttered with a gleaming tear in her eye.

“
There you go, sweetheart!” Tammy said enthusiastically.

“
It’s the best way, Lina,” Mr Tarchall said, holding her hand firmly. Angelina had been battling with a decision to make, which had been making her very unsteady and uneasy. But now that the decision had been made for her, she felt more relaxed than usual. She breathed heavily as a glistening tear ran down her cheek. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of creased paper that seemed aged and antiqued.

“
I’ve had this since Jade was three and since the twins were born.” She trembled as she spoke.

“
What is it?” Robbie asked.

“
You see how I got their powers locked? Well, it was done by a man – a man who visited the children and me one morning. He told me that I’d have to choose whether to recite it or not because eventually, the words would fade from this piece of paper and all the other things on which I’ve written it down to remember. Even from everyone’s memory but his own,” Angelina said whilst mildly shuddering. She wiped off her tears as she quavered.

“
What’s so special about this piece of paper?” Robbie asked.

“
It’s like the antidote, isn’t it?
That’s
what’s going to unlock their powers again, right?” Robbie pounced enthusiastically, answering his own question. Angelina looked at the piece of paper. Her eyes suddenly paid more attention to it as she saw a word twitch.

“
Oh no, I have to say it fast. The words are starting to fade. It’s a very slow process but once a word disappears, I wouldn’t be able to remember it ever again. And that could prove problematic if I
ever
wanted to unlock their powers,” Angelina said with a paranoid look running frenetically through her glacial eyes. Everybody stood up and rushed around her. Tantrus held her by her shoulders and spoke to her directly.

“
Angelina, listen to me – I know how hard this’ll be on you but if you don’t hurry, your children will
never
know who they truly are and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life!” Tantrus impressed on her. She focused as if only her and that piece of paper existed in the world and slowly, looked at it more intensely.

“
Come on,” Tantrus mouthed to her. The words came out flowing as though she knew them by heart. Everyone was in awe as she spoke them softly but clearly:

“
For the first:

Reach in deep, make a twist
,

Evolve her
heart to what should be her bliss…
”

“
Come on, Angelina, that’s for
one
child two more to go,” Mr Tarchall consoled.

“
…For the second:

Though can
’t be sick, and not one to tame,

Obliterate the padlock around this Lion
’s mane…
”

“
Just one more,” Tantrus encouraged.

“
…And for the third:

Beat by beat, breath by breath
,

Reveal what was hidden by the doings of death.
”

Nothing happened except for the piece of paper slowly evaporating into black smoke.

“Is that all? Is that it?” Mum asked curiously, but terrified whilst quickly looking around her.

“
It’ll be fine. At least it should
be,” Robbie said quietly.

Oh I wish.

CHAPTER 2.

Traits

“Mum,” Jade said, a little too loudly for my ears. She shut the door behind us, locking out the night frost. The house was dark and so quiet that it was almost haunting.

“
Hellooo!” Jade yelled again as we looked at each other confusingly.

“
She’s not home yet?” Jaden asked.

“
Unusual of her.” Jade turned on the corridor’s lights as she dropped the keys on the window frame next to the door. All of a sudden, like I was hit with a horrible impact of air, I began to breathe heavily as if dust was trapped in my chest.

“
A.J., are you okay?” my brother asked. I rested on my knees and panted.

“
Mm-hm,” I grumbled exaggeratedly. “I just feel worked up and uncomfortably hot…
I need water
,” I mumbled, rushing to the kitchen and opening the fridge. Jaden and Jade trailed on after me looking at each other, confused at my awkward behaviour.

“
Is he okay?” Jade mouthed to Jaden. Jaden merely shrugged and walked into the kitchen with her.

I opened the
fridge door and frantically searched for a bottle of chilled water – that’s what I was strangely craving. My throat was uncomfortably dry and felt as if the friction had escalated to the extent the tissues were sticking to each other. As I stretched my hand into the fridge and extracted the bottle, the refrigerated air began feeling warm and unpleasant, at which point my mind became tangled.

“
What?” I muttered to myself, stupefied.

“
Hey, you guys,” I called. “Does the fridge seem a little…
warm
to you?” I retracted my hand and Jaden slowly advanced his deep in the fridge. He pouted his lower lip and shrugged.

“
It seems just as cold to me. Are you okay?” he asked, placing the back of his hand on my forehead. I was still confused, but maybe it was just due to this fever I was experiencing.

“
Fine, I guess,” I answered unconvincingly as I took out a bottle of water. Jade and Jaden looked at each other, puzzled. I unscrewed the bottle cap and kept it in my fist as I gorged down the relaxing clear liquid.

The
water was chilled and overly refreshing. I started to squeeze the bottle and I could hear the thick plastic crumpling in my hands as I tried to take in more; I simply couldn’t get enough of the cold racing through my heated body. But the bracing and soothing sensation began wearing off – it suddenly felt as if a liquid were moving down my throat but I couldn’t feel or enjoy it. It flowed with an unpleasant heat. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion and I looked at the bottle – halfway finished. My eyes widened and what I saw made me gulp the remaining lukewarm water in one, strong,
painful
swallow. Jaden and Jade advanced closer, astonished by my behaviour.

We were all bewildered as we kept our eyes on the bubbling bottle of water in my hand.
It shook vigorously as the water inside boiled, gurgling resonantly and causing steam to ascend into the air. The deforming plastic showed signs that the bottle was starting to melt

“
This is
strange
,” said the punch-drunk look on my sister’s face. I looked at the bottle with an odd look of misunderstanding and confusion on my face, and quickly passed it off into Jaden’s hand. As if this were a dream, it instantly stopped – just like that. The water was calm, not a single bubble. The steam it was so toxically emitting gradually reduced to nothing and the sounds of boiling water silenced.

“
It’s ice cold,” Jaden remarked, still shocked. I took the bottle back and to our astonishment, it suddenly began bubbling again. I chuckled hollowly – a chuckle that signified I was scared to my rotten core but was idly amused.

“
No freaking way.”

All of a sudden
, a deafening
bang
brought us back to reality. We leapt and I dropped the bottle to the floor. The fridge socket had blown up and suddenly began sizzling with sparks as smoke started to billow away from it.

“
Did the fuse just blow? Bizarre…are you trying to prank me? Because if you are, you’re doing pretty well –”

“
No, this isn’t me,” Jaden immediately interfered. He was very convincing, even though I thought the sneaky conniving goat was lying. His face was completely perplexed, with every single crease and wrinkle of worry in place; not a single
twitch
of doubt on it. Maybe he
was
telling the truth, but pardon me for worrying about a bottle of water reaching a hundred degrees Celsius by me simply holding it.

I winced and slowly opened my
fist; the bottle cap in my hand was all shrivelled and melted, curling up steam through the air. I undid my tie and removed my blazer as my curly hair marinated itself in sweat.

“
It’s getting really hot!”  I complained.

“
Aden, it’s like fifteen degrees outside. How can you be hot?” Jade sassed.

“
I don’t know, I just am!” I retorted. I stormed off upstairs, leaving the two behind in the kitchen.

“
Aden, why are you still in your uniform?” My mum suddenly asked, popping out of nowhere upstairs.

“
I
don’t KNOW
! BLOODY HELL WHY IS IT SO HOT?!” I yelled, unintentionally slamming the door to run myself the coldest shower I could. Mum walked downstairs with her heels knocking on the stairs as she wiped off her dripping mascara with creased tissues.

“
What’s going on with Aden? Did you see
his back through his shirt when he took off his blazer?” Jade whispered to Jaden.

“
Yeah, it was
so
red,” Jaden exaggerated. “Do you think his rash has spread?” he asked.

“
No, not at all. I know
a rash when I see one. Do you know what that was? It was
sunburn
,” Jade whispered back. Jaden’s eyes had emotions of bafflement in them.

“
How in the
blazes
could he have had sunburn? The sun never even
existed
today.”

“
Exactly,” Jade whispered back.

“
Why are you still in your uniforms?” mum suddenly snapped. My siblings flinched. They were suddenly aware of mum as she slowly advanced through the kitchen. Their only thoughts were whether she’d been standing there long enough to have heard them speak about me.

“
Uh –”

“
It’s seven-thirty in the evening,” mum said, pointing at her watch and interrupting my sister’s nervous stutter as she folded her arms.

“
And what’s wrong with your brother? He just screamed at me and ran off into the bathroom.” Jaden and Jade peered at each other fretfully from the corners of their eyes. Mum shot a look of askance at Jaden. Her eyes were like icicles that penetrated the souls of Jaden and Jade, making them very uneasy and unsettled from where they were standing. However, whilst looking away suspiciously at them, mum’s eyes opened widely – as if she had seen a ten foot python on the floor coiling around her children’s feet.

“
You went to your father’s gravestone without my permission
? Do you have
any
idea how far that is?!”

“
How did you – wait, we never said that,” Jade said curiously. Mum was too stressed to think straight.

“
What are you taking about, Jade?” mum said, closing her eyes and sighing languidly.

“
You
said
we went to dad’s gravestone…we never mentioned that,” Jaden countered. Mum looked at them from eye to eye, knowing she had made a stressful mistake.

“
Stop trying to change the subject! The point is you shouldn’t have gone. It’s dangerous, you could have been hurt –
and what is wrong with your brother
?”

“
But the point is we weren’t. And he’s broken out in a heat rash of some sort –”

“
I thought you said it was sunburn,” Jaden whispered to Jade.

“
Shh!” Jade quickly hissed. Mum sighed and attempted to keep her emotions concealed from her face.

“
You will all drive me insane.” She turned back and walked away nervously, slightly quivering. Jaden and Jade looked at each other inquisitively.

“
What was all that about?” Jaden mouthed to Jade. She shrugged, unwilling to respond. Not that she could anyway. Otherwise many other questions would surface and there would still be no whiff of an answer.

The ice
cold shower was no help at all, so I resorted to taking a bath. I had filled the bathtub with water that I felt was way below glacial whilst leaving the window open – letting in the freshness of the night. But that still failed. I walked over to the mirror and looked at my flummoxed reflection.

My curly
, russet, wet hair slowly frizzed itself back into shape as it dried. I panted and looked at my arms. I wasn’t in pain – I just felt inexplicably hot and I hadn’t the faintest clue why. My insides were heating but not to an extent where I felt I was burning and on fire. Instead, it was to a degree where I felt weakened and entirely too dreary. The back of my arms had become red. I slowly advanced my finger towards the back of my neck and with one little touch I winced and retracted my hand sharply. As you can imagine, the aggravated red blotches of swollen disturbed skin stung. I turned around and looked at my back in the mirror.

“
Bloody hell
.” Before I knew it, I had raided the bathroom for sunscreen and my whole back was covered in it. I stormed out of the bathroom with a towel over my head and passed by mum.

“
Aden, we need to talk – what in the blazes? What’s wrong with your back?” I rushed into my bedroom and slammed the door behind me.

“
Can’t talk; too hot.”

We woke up the next morning by the shrill ear-splitting scream coming from Jade’s room and we immediately rushed to her. Well, there was no easy way to say it but her room was trashed. Jade was sitting on her bed with her hair sagging over her terror-stricken face. The mirrors and glass objects were all shattered and the tables destroyed. Long cracks were entrenched all over the walls. Mum looked the most shocked, gulping in worry.

“
Oh my goodness! Sweetie, what happened?” mum asked, with an unconvincing look of surprise on her face.

Jade was hyperventilating madly as
her mouth trembled open to speak.

“
I – I – I don’t know! I had a nightmare…and then I woke up…AND MY ROOM WAS DESTROYED –”

Jaden and I merely
sneered underneath our hands in the background, trying as hard as possible to conceal our minuscule laughter. Jade maliciously turned her head to us.

We lowered our hands and sucked in our lips as she stared at us malevolently through her
long wilting hair.

“
You!
” she snarled at me.

“
What are you talking about? I didn’t do any of this,” I said, choking on my laughter.

“
What, you think just because your sunburn has healed you’re allowed to do what you want?!” she snapped.

“
Oh, so it
was
sunburn, and actually it
has
healed – how did you know?” Strange, I didn’t mention anything to her about it. Jaden couldn’t control himself and finally he spewed out a loud belly laugh. Jade jumped out of bed and her hand flew straight to Jaden’s neck, holding him in a choking grasp. She slid him up the wall and his feet lifted off of the ground.

“
WOAH, WOAH! JADE, CHILL! We were
just
joking. Calm down,” Jade blinked, as if stepping out of a delusional trance, and dropped Jaden, leaving him to crash with a thud. He massaged his throat as Jade backed away slowly.

“
Sorry,” she mumbled.

“
What’s wrong with you? How did you do that? You, like – lifted me off the ground!” Jaden growled.

“
Watch it! Just because I spared you once doesn’t mean I won’t do it again.” Mum licked her lips and blinked frequently. Jade sighed deeply and stroked her hair back.

“
I’ve got a headache,” she muttered underneath her breath.

“
You three honestly need to stop bickering. Jade, I’m sorry about the mess in your room; I’ll try and get it fixed, but Jojo and her mum will be here in a couple of minutes. So, in the meantime, go and get ready for school,” mum ordered sharply yet trying to keep her cool. She then walked out of the room in a suspicious hurry. I couldn’t help but think that our mother was very shady these days. But why? What was she hiding? Again, when it came to women in my family, only God knew. Jaden and I trudged out,
still
bottling our laughter as Jade narrowed her eyes at us.